Book 2: The Long Quiche Goodbye-A Cheese Shop Mystery by Avery Aames

I love cheese. I really love cheese. When I spotted a series called "A Cheese Shop Mystery" I knew I had to read the first book. Written by Avery Aames, The Long Quiche Goodbye is a cozy mystery with Charlotte Bessette acting as the novice detective while she is busy running her family's cheese shop, Fromagerie Bessette.

At the grand opening of the store, Ed Woodhouse is murdered right outside the front door. Charlotte's Grandmère, also the town's mayor, was found near his body, covered in blood. She claims innocence, but is arrested.

Charlotte goes to work trying to figure out who the real killer is. Could it be Kristine, Ed's wife & Grandmère's opponant for mayor? Maybe it's Meredith, Charlotte's best friend. Charlotte comes up with many different suspects, each of whom she thinks may have good reason to kill Ed.

I felt the book moved a little slowly in the beginning, but once it got rolling it was easy to stick with. A bonus of the book is that the cheese dishes mentioned throughout the story are actually shared at the end of the book with their full recipes!

I'm definitely going to read the next book in the series, Lost and Fondue. I have to find out what happens with Charlotte and hunky Jordan!

Book #25: Duplicity Dogged The Dachshund by Blaize Clement

Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund is the second installment in the Dixie Hemingway Mystery series by the late Blaize Clement. In the series, Dixie, a former law enforcement officer is now a pet sitter in Sarasota, Florida. During her pet sitting duties, she finds herself  discovering dead bodies and subsequently involved in the investigation.

In this installment, Dixie is walking a dachshund when the dog finds a body. Dixie is once again in the middle of the case, at times alongside Lieutenant Guidry who is handsome and a bit mysterious. Dixie, not able to fully escape her law enforcement past, begins asking questions and ends up in the sights of a psychopathic killer.

I enjoyed this book a bit more than the first. I felt like Dixie's character was changing a bit and for the better. She was becoming more aware of how she was running away from people emotionally. Toward the end, there were definite improvements in her outlook on life. I hope that this positive change carries on to the next book.

Speaking of the next book, I plan on reading the entire series. There is going to be one more Dixie Hemingway Mystery published (the seventh installment) that Ms. Clement wrote before her passing. After that, it is planned that her son will carry on the series.

Cats and Books-Two of My Favorite Things!

"Murder Past Due" by Miranda James was my 26th book for 2010. I read it for a book club I am part of on Twitter. It is a cozy mystery written under a pseudonym. The author's real name is Dean James, author of the Simon Kirby-Jones mystery series. For this series, Cat in the Stacks, James took on a female name.

In "Murder Past Due" Charlie Harris is a librarian who takes his cat Diesel with him everywhere, walking him on a harness and leash. An old classmate comes back to town to be honored for being a best-selling novelist, but ends up dead-the victim of a brutal murder. Charlie is asked by the lead investigator's mother to poke around for information to help her daughter solve the case. As it turns out, the investigator doesn't really need the help and Charlie (already on her bad side) seems to only irritate her.

The story has several potential killers, all with motives to murder the not-so-nice author. There are a couple of twists, but nothing that is all too surprising. There were times when I didn't want to put the book down, and other times when I wasn't all that interested in what happened. I had mixed emotions about the story all throughout my reading of the book.

The most noticeable difference between this cozy and others I have read is that the main character is a man. Typically, the antagonist is a woman in cozies, so this was a bit odd for me at first. Also, the main character didn't actually end up solving the crime in this book. It was nice to have things mixed up a bit from other cozies I have read, instead of the same format I have read previously.

If you are a cozy mystery fan, you will probably enjoy the book. If not, this may not be the best one to start with to check out the genre.

Book #20: Cop Turned Cat-Sitter

I just finished reading my twentieth book of the year, "Curiosity Killed The Cat Sitter" by Blaize Clement. It is the first in the Dixie Hemingway cozy mystery series. I chose this book as my second selection for this month's book club discussion on Twitter.

Dixie Hemingway was a deputy in the local sheriff's department when her life was turned upside down. She left her law enforcement career to become a pet sitter and leave her former life behind. On one of her routine assignments checking on a cat whose owner hired Dixie to watch her pet while she was out of town, Dixie discovers a dead body face down in the cat's water dish. All signs point to Dixie as a suspect; she had a key to the house where the body was found, nobody had seen her on her early morning assignments and she was already looked upon as a bit unstable in the community.

Dixie uses her skills she developed in law enforcement to dig deeper into the mystery of the dead man and the missing owner of the cat she is tending to. Her questions come naturally, as does her ability to read people. Soon, she is getting in further than she should, but she can't stop the nagging thoughts about the case until everything finally becomes clear, with a little assistance from the cat.

Throughout the book, Dixie shows compassion for all the animals on her watch, but indicates that she doesn't want one of her own. Because of the recent upheaval in her life, Dixie can't seem to get close to anybody, including a pet. I'm hoping to see that change in future books of the series.

The only thing I really didn't like about the book was how it was wrapped up after the case was solved. There were a lot of loose ends that I had to make assumptions about and I would rather have had some more details about the characters I had gotten to know in the story. Overall, it was a fun mystery and I will check out the next book in the series, "Duplicity Dogged The Dachshund".

Half Way to My Goal With a Cozy Mystery

I'm finally at the halfway mark! I've picked up the pace since returning from Boston, so I should be on track to get the other 15 books read by the end of the year. Three books a month is a reasonable goal and I've got some good ones lined up!

My most recent read, book #15 for the year, was "The Cat, The Quilt And The Corpse" by Leann Sweeney. It is a "cozy mystery" which I was not familiar with, nor was I familiar with the author or her series, "Cats In Trouble" mysteries. I chose this book as part of a book club I came across on Twitter. It was one of three choices for the next meeting and after weighing two of the three titles, I went with this one.

Cozy mysteries are stories that are more lighthearted than other mystery novels. The characters working to solve the mysteries are typically regular people, not detectives, who end up solving the mystery by being persistent. Usually the story is set in a small town and the mystery-solver is a woman.

In this case, Jillian Hart is living in a small town when one of her beloved cats is stolen. Soon, she finds the cat-napper dead in his home. She learns that many cats have gone missing in this little lake town and she is determined to find out what the connection is between the dead man and the missing kitties, despite being dismissed repeatedly by the town's police chief.

The book was fast-paced and had several characters who were looked at as potential suspects. It was fun and interesting trying to figure out who had killed the feline thief and what happened to all of his victims. Jillian and the friends she made along the way were likable characters. She is portrayed as a regular person, kind and bright, who is thrown into an unusual situation and faces it head on.

I really enjoyed how the book flowed and how the story was told by the author. I will definitely be looking for the next book in the series to add to my bookshelves.